Tennis-racket.



H. W. RIBS L, B. BROWN TENNIS BASKET.

APPLICATION FILED 0011?;

1,132,214, Patented 1.1411. 16.1915.

INVENTOFES I J 7 WITNESSES ATTORNEY UNITED STAEES PATENT OFFICE.

HARRY W. RES, COLLINGS'WOOD, NEW JERS EY, AND LAIl'DY B. BROWN, OB

- EHILA DELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

TENNIS-BASKET.

a i To all whom it may concern Be it known that we, HARRY W. R'ms,acitiaen of the United States, and resident of Collingswood, county ofCamden, and State of New Jersey, and Lanny B. Bnowri, a citizen of theUnited States, and resident of E'hiladelphia, county of Philadelphia,State f of Pennsylvania, have invented an Improvement in Tennis-Rackets,of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to tennis rackets and more particularly to themanner of stringing the racket.

It as for an object to provide a tennis racket having a playing area ofrelatively high resilience which is so positioned and arranged. as toreceive the greatest amount of use, and bounding said area by otherareas of relatively less resilience.

it has'for a further object to provide a tennis racket wherein the frameis braced by reason of the arrangement of the strings to prevent itsdistortion in case one or more of the strings are broken; also to permitof repair. has also a further object, namely, to

, provide a tennis racket strung in such a .manner that better controlof the ball is obtained.

Our invention comprehends features of construction which will be, betterunderstood by reference to the drawings, in which:

Figure 1 represents a side elevation of a tennis racket embodying ourinvention; Fig. 2 represents diagrammatically thearran'ge ment of thestrings;-and Fig. 3 represents;

a section of a modified form of stringing,

- ,or heavier gut. It. will henoted, howeveg.

said section being taken at a point corre sponding to the line 33 ofFig. 1.

1 designates the annular frame of a tennis racket, which is suitablybored, shownat .2 for example, for the .purpose of forming transverseopenings for looping the stringsthrough the frame in the proper mannerto. form a playing area with the strings in the same plane. In thepresent instance we have formed a playing area of two grades of;

strings, 3 and 4., the former being of relatively fine gut while thelatter is of coarser sh t-ate scan wiahta b lim d Specification ofLetters latent. Application filed October 16, 1914. Serial no. ceases.

Patented Mar. 16, 1915.

particular gradq construction of string,

since obviously the strings 4 may be of the same grade or degree offineness as the strings 3 but doubled as shown'at Fig. 3 so that eachstring as it crcisses the playing the area comprises. two strards. Inusin term gut it'will be an erstobd we 0 so in the broad sense and donot wishto be limited necessarily to actual gut as the only material ofwhich the strings may be made, as obviously any material may be employedwhich gives strength, resiliency and durability for the purposeintended, and are included under the term gut as em field of suitabledimensions and is prefer-' ably passed longitudinally and transversel ofthe frame as shown in Fig. 1, thong our invention is not limited to thisparticular manner of traversing the opening in the racket since theparticular direction of the crossed strings relative to the frame 1 isimmaterial so long as the proper playing area is provided. The result ofthus stringing the racket with the string 3 is to form intersecting,longitudinal and transverse portions interwoven and forming an area 5 ofgreat resilience and which area is preferably located where the field ofplay is th greatest. I

The strings 4 are utilized as a means for bracing the-racket frame forassisting in maintaining it at all times and under all .,COI1dli3l0Il'S'aoeurate as to shape and also ex- --tend 1ng the playing area; and inattaining this end, we have passed one of th'e strings 4 longitudinallyof ther'acket and at one side of the field of ,the string ,3, suitablylooping the string 4 through the frame and then passing it at rightangles to its former course and carrying it transversely of the frame,'alsoto one side of'the playing field th 3', ike th str ng a asset.-

the playing area 5 of the racketis formed of resilient flexible gutcomprising the crossed or interwoven portions of string 3 and isseparate and distinct from the areas in Which the strings 4 form a partor whole. The ad-.

Vantage of this construction will be readily apparent in view of thefact that the greater portion of play takes place upon the area 5 formedby the string 3 of relatively fine gut and in case-the -string formingthe said area 5 should break there is no objectionable loosening of thetension upon the racket frame, since the strings 4 hold the frame firmlyin its normal shape. \Vhile the strings 4, therefore, primarily serve asa meansto prevent the frame from becoming distorted, especially duringrepairs to the strings 3, they also, by reason of being preferablyheavier or thicker gut, serve to give an added control to the balleither in serving or in returning it. Such stringing as here describedis particularly useful in giving a more pronounced cut to the ball.

In Fig. 3 we have illustrated a modification wherein the strings 4 maybe of f ne gut and doubled in number by looping through the apertures inthe frame so that double the number of strands cross the opening or faceof the racket in the same areas 6 and 7, heretofore described, asoccupied by the strings 4, said strands being preferably strung throughapertures 2 in the frame in pairs. By employing more strands (closertogether) in a given area, it is manifest that greater rigidity or lessresiliency 1S imparted to such areas thanin the-area 5 and the broadresults of our invention will be secured.

The area 5, bounded laterally on each side by the less resilient areas(iand 7 formed by the longitudinal strands 4 or their equivalent of lessresiliency, fulfils the more important functions of our invention, andtherefore we may omit the transverse stringing to give the lessresilient areas if so desired.

In connection with the use of the strings 4 it will be understood thatwe do not wish to lie-limited to the number of these strings forming theseveral areas, as obviously this feature may be varied to suitconditions and still be within the scope of our invention.

It wil be apparent that a racket strung in aimllda so .with ourinvention may be repaired very easily and economically since' greatercontrol of the ball when the racket is in play as before pointed out.

The playing area of relatively high resiliency and bounding areas ofrelatively lower resiliency may be produced by strings of various kinds,densities, tensions, sizes or cross sectional areas (single or pluralstrings) and we therefore do not restrict ourselves to strings ofdifferent cross sectional areas.

lVe do not limit ourselves to any number of string sections, but haveshown three, by way of example, to provide a relatively few terminalends; and while we have described our invention iii-its preferred formWe do not confine ourselves to the minor details as these may bemodified without departing from the spirit of the'invention.

Having now described our invention, what we claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent 1s-:

1. In a tennis racket, the combination of.

an annular frame having its opening strung with crossing stringsproviding a central playing area formed of strings of high resiliencyand the extension of said strings with strin s of lower resiliencybounding said central playing area, to form areas having less resiliencythan the central area.

2. In a tennis racket, the combination of a suitable f 'ame, a netstrung in said frame, the strings thereof 'aranged transversely andlongitudinally to form mesh of substantially equal size and in whichtliecentral area of the strung surface has greater resiliencythan thebounding area between it and the frame.

3. In a tennis racket, the combination of an annular frame having itsopening strung with crossing'strings of substantially uniform mesharrai'iged to form a central rectangular area 5 of high resiliency,having its sides bounded by four areas 7 of medium and lover resiliency,and four additional areas 6 of lowest resiliency connecting the areas 7and also acting as a support to the central area of high resiliency, theconstruction providing means of graduating the strain of impact upon thestrung areas and forming a natural central pocket when] strands ofrelatively coarser gut strung lat- In testimony of which invention, Wehers erally and longitudinally of said frame a unto set our hands.

plurality of times and meshing with the HARRY W. EYES. finer gut stringsaround the central playing LANDY B. BEOWN. area to form an interwovenarea of rela- "Witnesses:

tively lower resiliency bounding said @lny- Fnoimrzcn EEACOIQE

